We have made some changes to our home in the past few years, things that will allow us to age safely here. While many of the changes were made with my husband’s needs in mind, I am pleasantly surprised to say that I enjoy them just as much, if not more than he does. And I was able to do many of them myself which gave me a great sense of accomplishment, something that I don’t always feel in my role of CarePartner.

I no longer think of them as home modifications but rather home modernizations, things that make life easier for both of us. One of the first things I did was to remove the ugly old door knobs and replace them with attractive lever handles. It is so much easier for me to get in the house with those armloads of groceries these days. Another update involved installing grab bars in the bathroom. Even though I can still shower and get off the toilet without assistance, I often find myself reaching for the grab bars. Why not use them if they are there?

Speaking of bathrooms, one other modification that I can claim credit for is our bidet toilet seat. Personal hygiene can become a real challenge for us as we age. I saw a working bidet when I was shopping for a taller toilet and was intrigued. It took me a while to convince my husband that we should give it a try, however now that we have it, we both use it regularly. We needed an electrician to install an electrical plug by the toilet and then I was able to attach the seat myself. We call it our “French toilet”, (bidets were first used in France in the 1600’s), and it works like a champ for those tough situations.

Home modernization can be scary and expensive, but so is moving into senior housing. We love our home and want to stay here. By diverting funds that we had set aside for travel, we are making our home more livable, and it is working for us. Doing much of it ourselves gives us control over what it looks like and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.